Courts continue to show increases

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, July 5, 2005

He recently had an article printed, "Collection's Corner," detailing what Pasadena has gone through setting up its collections system which currently has a 90 percent compliance ratio.

However, he said, each court is different. And, since in most cases collections are being added to an existing system, he made references to challenges Pasadena is continuing to overcome while integrating collections into the current system. Pasadena has been providing collections service for court costs for about a year. Over the past few months, other municipal courts have visited Pasadena to see the collections system.

In addition to the collections, Rorick said he is very proud of the number of clerks in his office that are working to better themselves by completing the level one clerks certification. He said currently five of the clerks in his court have completed their level one certification. They are Lisa Gonzalez, Mona Lewis, Marge Ray, Katherine Macias and Maria Macias-Garcia.

Gonzalez, who is currently working on her level-two certification, said the certifications are not pay increases. She said that the certification study guides provide her with more information so that she can better do her job.

Across the state only 71 clerks are level-two certified, Gonzalez said.

"I will be very proud when I complete the level-two certification," Gonzalez said.

Rorick said he supports continuing education and the dedication the clerks have to better themselves. He said each time a clerk comes back from continuing education they bring back knowledge that can help improve what is being done in Pasadena.

While the monthly numbers did not set any records, Rorick said the number of cases and the fees and fines continue to show increases compared to 2004.

In May, the Pasadena Municipal Court had 7,686 cases and collected more than $776,000. For that month in 2004 there were 6,736 cases and collections were almost $653,000.

The court issued 1,328 warrants in May.

The court collected $13,464 in forfeited bonds compared to $11,415 for the same month of the previous year.

The court had eight jury courts in May, twice the number of jury courts held in May 2004. The court had 126 jurors in May compared to 88 for the same month of 2004.

The court had 7,159 non-parking violations, 32 parking violations for traffic misdemeanors filed during the month.

The court had 226 for state law violations and 269 city ordinance violation for non traffic misdemeanors filed during the month. The court ordered 485 cases to perform community service.